Habitforge Helps You Build Healthy Habits

Simply tell Habitforge what it is you want to do, and how frequently you want to do it, and the service will help you make your vague goal into something you actually do with some regularity.

Whether you're staring down the end of the year and want to get a head start on your New Year's Resolutions, or you just want to make a positive change in your life, like getting out for a walk periodically or remembering to get a little exercise when you wake up, Habitforge can help. Habits are generally activities that you repeat without really thinking about having to do them, and it takes repetition to turn an activity from something occasional to a real habit that is part of your daily routine.

Simply tell Habitforge what it is you want to do and how frequently you want to do it, and the service will help you make your vague goal into something you actually do with some regularity. The goal is that eventually, Habitforge will be able to step aside, and you won't even think about it—you'll just do it.

Habitforge reminds me of Disciplanner, another tool that's designed to help you take vague goals, like exercising every day and packing your own lunch, and turning them into things that you actually do. Accounts at Habitforge are free, and getting your reminders set up is incredibly simple: Unlike with Disciplanner, Habitforge has no graphing or analysis tools available to make sure you did what you set out to do, just a reminder and some light tracking of your progress.

Habitforge operates under the old standard that it takes 21 days of repeating an activity for it to become a habit that you'll do without prodding or without knowing someone will ask about it the next day. Once you're logged in to Habitforge, you tell the service what it is you would like to start doing on a daily basis, and what you would like Habitforge to ask you when it checks in to see if you've been keeping up with your new habit.

Each morning, you'll wake up to find an e-mail in your inbox that asks if you were successful at your new activity the day before. Just click yes or no to record your progress, and the service will keep track of your progress towards 21 days. If you miss a day, you get bumped back to day one, so the stakes get higher as you make progress.

If you like encouragement from the public, you can even tell the service to share your goal and your progress towards it with other Habitforge members so they can see how well you're doing. Also, some people report it's easier to work towards a goal when you know that goal is public and people are watching your progress. It would be nice if Habitforge allowed you to share you goals and progress more publicly, like on your personal blog or Facebook page, but it is beta and more features are on the way.

In the meantime however, if you're looking for a way to remind yourself to do something daily—and it really is a daily service, you can't configure reminders to occur weekly or just on business days—Habitforge can really help. Knowing you'll have a message in your inbox the next morning asking whether you did something you meant to the previous day is a great way to make sure you do it before bed. Back to top